1. Field of the Invention
The present invention teaches an aftermarket installation assembly for use with an existing home furnace and humidifier for providing recyclable use (i.e. a Green application) of either of a city water input or condensate output of the furnace.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Residential and commercial heating systems require some form of humidification in the winter time. Optimizing the ambient air humidity within an enclosed structure, such as to around 40 to 50% in one preferred application, will save energy costs by having the building occupants will feel warmer at lower temperatures, this also resulting in physiological improvements including decreased incidences of respiratory diseases. Providing adequate humidification also results in reduction in static electricity, and damage to furniture, artwork, paper, and other items sensitive to expansion and contraction are also reduced.
As is also known in the art, the increasing standard of furnaces currently produced are typically of the high efficiency variety. This higher efficiency is a byproduct of bringing in outside air into the fire box, instead of using air from the inside the house or other enclosed structure for combustion.
In operation, furnace exhaust gases pass to an exhaust decoupler, which is part of the sound reduction system of the condensing furnace. In the exhaust decoupler, the gases are cooled in one application from about 700° Fahrenheit to 350° Fahrenheit. The exhaust gases from the exhaust decoupler are forced through a condenser coil and are discharged through the flue gas outlet from the condensing furnace. Exhaust gases passing through the condenser coil are cooled by air passing over the coil so that the exhaust gas will leave at a relatively low temperature, such as 100° Fahrenheit or lower. As the temperature of the gases reach dew point (at about 130° Fahrenheit) in the condenser coil, water is condensed from the gases, allowing the furnace to reclaim the latent heat of combustion. High furnace efficiencies in excess of 91 percent can be achieved in condensing furnaces of the type described. Absent some mechanism integrated into the system for recycling or reuse, the resultant condensate output from the furnace is usually disposed through a sump or drain.
As is also known, typical commercial and residential furnace installations include some form of humidification, in particular in northern climates where the absence of such humidification results in extremely dry humidity conditions in winter months. In a typical application, such humidifiers will input city water and expose it to the hot air stream of the furnace, which moves the air through the building with its fan system.
Water not used in the humidification of the building is typically discharged at the bottom of the humidifier into a sump or directly into the sewer system. If discharged directly into a sump, power is then required to pump the water out of the house and into the city sewer system.
According to one non-limiting operation, a typical evaporative pad type humidifier will use eighty ounces of water in a ten minute furnace run cycle, with only six ounces used for humidification. The other approximately seventy four ounces is discharged into the sewer system as waste.
Thus, in a twenty-four hour period, one residential system wasted twenty four gallons of water. This means that only about eight percent of the provided water is actually used to humidify the building, with the other ninety-two percent wasted. This waste costs money for the water along with the associated sewer and electrical fees.
Attempts have been made in the prior art to recycle the aqueous condensate resulting from the flue gases generated by the thermal exchanger in the furnace, and for reuse in the furnace humidification system. A first example of this is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,680, to Payne, and in which such an aqueous condensate is provided as a primary input to the evaporator of the built-in (integrated) furnace humidification system. Payne also teaches utilizing a field installed humidifier external to the furnace which also utilizes the aqueous condensate as the principal aqueous input.
A second example is shown in Dempsey, U.S. Pat. No. 8,794,601, which teaches a humidifier including a membrane permeable to a water component of a condensate supply but impermeable to an acid component. Also disclosed is a housing system for urging an airflow across the membrane to humidify the air with the water component of the condensate supply.
Other references of note include the humidifier system of Charland, U.S. Pat. No. 6,286,501, such including a heat exchange tube adapted to be heated by a furnace as the furnace heats air to be circulated throughout a building (enclosed space). An evaporation tube is in fluid communication with the heat exchange tube and is adapted to being maintained at first level when the furnace is not heating the air. A purge line is in fluid communication with the evaporation tube and is adapted to drain fluid from the humidifier when the furnace is heating air and the fluid is at a second level.
Finally, US 2014/0174423, published to Wang et al., discloses a method and apparatus for humidifying residential and commercial buildings in which a flue gas generated by a residential or commercial furnace is provided to one side of a porous liquid water transport membrane and habitable space air is provided to an opposite side of the porous liquid water transport membrane in an amount sufficient to provide a habitable space air to flue gas volume flow rate ratio of at least 8.3:1. At least a portion of the water vapor in the flue gas is condensed, providing condensed liquid water which is passed through the porous liquid water transport membrane to the habitable space air side of the porous liquid water transport membrane. On the habitable space air side of the membrane, the condensed liquid water is evaporated into the habitable space air, producing humidified habitable space air which is provided to the rooms of the residential and commercial buildings. Beneficially, no supplemental water source is required for the humidification process.